Cooking and enjoying food are popular pastimes. In both domestic and professional settings, “sous-vide” cooking is becoming increasingly common. In “sous-vide” cooking, food is cooked for relatively longer times at relatively lower temperatures, and is generally separated from a cooking medium by packaging in airtight plastic bags. The cooking medium is usually a temperature-controlled water bath or steam oven which allows for rapid heat transfer between the packaged food and the cooking medium.
In general, “sous-vide” cooking requires that cooking temperatures and durations be controlled precisely to obtain a desired end result, namely, a palatable cooked food that is safe from food-borne bacteria. A user might want to use a non-standard time and temperature combination, for example, to accommodate a set schedule or a lack of time. Moreover, the user might want to modify a well-known time and temperature combination to make an affordance for his or her personal taste. However, deviating from well-known time and temperature combinations can result in food that is not safe or palatable. As a result, conventional methods for “sous-vide” cooking are prone to delays and errors and may cause fears over food safety.
For illustration purposes, in an example situation where a user wishes to cook steak “sous-vide” for his or her dinner, the user may refer to a recipe book or search online for a “sous-vide” recipe. The “sous-vide” recipe may specify, for example, that steak be cooked for approximately two to three hours at 57 degrees Centigrade (57° C.). If the user has only one hour, her or she may wish to adjust the “sous-vide” recipe as per his or her current requirement.
Traditionally, the user has had two options. As a first option, the user may have chosen to delay his or her steak dinner. As a second option, the user may have chosen to arbitrarily modify the “sous-vide” recipe ad hoc, for example, to one hour at 59 degrees Centigrade (59° C.) The first option is inconvenient to the user and the second option risks the cooked steak being unpalatable, unsafe or both.